Election Tribunal Announces Date for Pre-hearing of Obi and Atiku’s Petitions

The Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT) sitting in Abuja has fixed a date for the commencement of all pre-hearing sessions leading to the full hearing on respective applications challenging the outcome of the 2023 presidential election.

The Tribunal fixed Monday (May 8) for pre-hearing.

The date was confirmed on Wednesday by the Secretary of the PEPT.

“We have fixed Monday next week for commencement of prehearing in all the Matters before the Petition Court,” the official told newsmen.

The presidential flag bearers of the Labour Party and the Peoples Democratic Party, Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, have issued responses to all the preliminary objections filed against their petitions challenging Bola Tinubu’s declaration as the winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Meanwhile, in a bid to maximise time, Obi’s team in a letter to the Secretary of, Presidential Election Court, dated April 21, asked for the “issuance of pre-hearing notice” in respect of his petition.

In his pre-hearing notice letter before the court, Obi wrote the PEPT seeking determination of some key issues in his case against INEC and Tinubu.

The letter had been approved by the court.

As seen in the pre-hearing form filled by Obi’s legal team, they are seeking the enforcement of the court’s orders which ordered INEC to release electoral materials, among other things.

Obi intends to argue during the pre-hearing session: “Applications for subpoena, objections, enforcement of order of court not obeyed by INEC and other applications arising in the course of the hearing.”

Other pre-hearing responses and applications entered by all the petitioners and respondents will be heard. Obi alleged in his petition that the election of Tinubu was invalid by reason of alleged corrupt practices or non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022.

Obi also accused INEC of non-compliance with relevant laws, adding that the electoral umpire altered election results in about 18,000 polling units against him while refusing to use the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System machine mandatory to accredit voters and upload results in real-time in line with the Electoral Act.

On their part, INEC, Tinubu, and his political party, the All Progressives Congress, entered objections asking the tribunal to dismiss Obi’s petition for abuse of the court process.